CEPEA: Brazil's dairy imports rise 14.5% in May, exports retreat 22%

Even with high external prices, Brazilian dairy imports grew 14.5% in May compared to the previous month, totaling 8.4 thousand tons, according to the June Milk Bulletin of Cepea (Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics), of Esalq/USP. "This scenario is the result of the low availability of raw material in the Brazilian market, intensified by the off-season period of dairy production in the Southeast and Midwest", points out the publication, released this Thursday (17). "The 5% devaluation of the dollar against the real in May also favored foreign purchases of dairy products," added analysts Munira Nasrrallah and Juliana Santos, from the Leite do Cepea team, responsible for analyzing the dairy trade balance last month. According to data from Secex, imports of powdered milk totaled 4.18 thousand tons in May, 26% more than in April and corresponding to 49.7% of the total volume of imported dairy products in the month. The main suppliers of the derivative were Uruguay and ...